Virtual universe avatar activities review

ABSTRACT

A proximity threshold of an avatar is defined with respect to proximity to an artifact located within a virtual universe domain. Activity by the avatar within the virtual universe domain is tracked, with activity data generated from the tracking. The activity data is analyzed to determine proximity of the avatar to the artifact within the proximity threshold, and a report is generated from the analyzing, the report noting a determined proximity of the avatar to the artifact within the proximity threshold. In one aspect, the report is provided to a supervisory entity.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No.12/238,529 filed Sep. 26, 2008.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention generally relates to tracking and reporting theactivities of avatars in a virtual universe (VU), in one aspect enablingsupervision of avatar activities.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

A Virtual Universe (VU) is a computer-based simulated world orenvironment; other terms for VU's include metaverses, “3-D Internet” andVirtual World, and VU will be understood to represent any of theseenvironments. Users inhabit and traverse a VU, and interact with otherVU users through the use of an avatar, a graphical representation of theuser often taking the form of a cartoon-like human though any two orthree dimensional graphic image or rendering may be utilized. In orderto participate within or inhabit a VU a user creates an agent whichfunctions as the user's account, and upon which the user builds anavatar tied to an inventory of assets the user owns in the VU andassociated with the agent.

Many VU's are represented using three dimensional (3-D) graphics andlandscapes and are populated by many thousands of users or “residents,”wherein the VU often resembles a real world or a fantasy/fictional worldin terms of physics, houses, landscapes and in interpersonalcommunications with other user avatars. VU environments generallycomprise a variety of man-made or computer application-generatedartifacts, in one aspect representative of items understood andrecognized by users through their experiences in the real world as well,as through fictional experiences. An artifact may be a tangible itemengaged by an avatar or otherwise defining an environmental context ofor setting for an avatar, including geographic features such as walkwaysand streets, buildings (stores, casinos, etc.), parks, plazas, atriums.Tangible artifacts may also include fantastical and expressionisticitems and settings not known or experienced in the real-world, forexample including artifacts representative of other real or imaginedplanets, of hell or heaven, or of worlds of fictional literature and thearts. Artifacts may also define personal property items, withillustrative but not exhaustive examples including motorcycles, tokens,guns, clothing, as well as fantasy world weapons, potions, spacesuits,armor, etc. Artifacts may also include avatars engaged in a VU, saidavatar artifacts sometimes representing users or automated applications(for example, an automaton greeter programmed to request userinformation inputs); accordingly, avatar artifacts may evince orcomprise a wide variety of visual and behavioral attributes, evidencingreal-life human-like appearances and behaviors as well as fantasticalpowers, weapons or character appearances.

Large robust VU's and massively multiplayer online games, such as forexample Second Life® (SECOND LIFE is a trademark of Linden Research,Inc. in the United States and/or other countries), Entropia Universe™(ENTROPIA UNIVERSE is a registered trademark of MindArk PE AB in theUnited States, other countries, or both), The Sims Online™ (THE SIMSONLINE is a trademark of Electronic Arts, Inc. in the United States,other countries, or both), and There™ (THERE is a trademark of MakenaTechnologies, Inc. in the United States, other countries, or both)render and display detailed, large and complex graphic environmentswithin which users may travel and participate as if a character in anexpressionistic or fantastical fictional world or within a realistic orrepresentational approximation of real life.

A VU may also be defined with respect to multiple VU regions, virtualareas of land within the VU often residing on a single server, with eachregion amenable to provision and management by a one or moreparticipating providers. The size and complexity and variety ofresources found in a VU may be directly related to a number of providersparticipating and hosting regions through server hosting, and thesuccess of a VU may depend upon attracting users and keeping themengaged and participating in the VU environment, thereby adding value tothe providers who bear the cost in providing VU region content andservices and who may correspondingly expect an appropriate level ofmultiple-user engagement as a return on their investment, as well as forother users who wish to engage many others in a large virtual community.

For example, an informational or service-related region managed by anon-profit organization may desire or expect a given level of VU userengagement and participation, and commercial region providers may desireto engage in a given level of commercial transactions (e.g. number ofsales, advertising exposures or paying subscribers) or achieve a levelof marketing exposure among VU users. However, the solitary andunsupervised nature of a user's engagement with a given VU may presentproblems, for example enabling a user to engage in unsafe orinappropriate activities available within the VU.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Methods, services, program products and devices are provided fortracking avatar activities within a virtual universe domain. A proximitythreshold of an avatar is defined with respect to proximity to anartifact located within a virtual universe domain. Activity by theavatar within the virtual universe domain is tracked, with activity datagenerated from the tracking. The activity data is analyzed to determineproximity of the avatar to the artifact within the proximity threshold,and a report is generated from the analyzing, the report noting adetermined proximity of the avatar to the artifact within the proximitythreshold. In one aspect, the report is provided to a supervisoryentity. In another aspect, service methods are provided comprisingdeploying applications configured to track avatar activities accordingto method steps described above, for example by a service provider whooffers to implement, deploy, and/or perform functions for others. Stillfurther, articles of manufacture comprising a computer usable mediumhaving a computer readable program in said medium are provided. Suchprogram code comprises instructions which, when executed on a computersystem, cause the computer system to perform one or more method and/orprocess elements described above for tracking avatar activities.Moreover, systems, articles and programmable devices configured forperforming one or more method and/or process elements of the currentinvention are also provided for tracking avatar activities, for exampleas described above.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

These and other features of this invention will be more readilyunderstood from the following detailed description of the variousaspects of the invention taken in conjunction with the accompanyingdrawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a flow chart illustrating a process and system for trackingavatar activities within a virtual universe domain according to thepresent invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustration of an engagement of an artifactby an avatar tracked according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustration of a virtual universe clientdevice configured to track avatar activities within a virtual universedomain according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary computerizedimplementation of a system and method for tracking avatar activitieswithin a virtual universe domain according to the present invention.

The drawings are not necessarily to scale. The drawings are merelyschematic representations, not intended to portray specific parametersof the invention. The drawings are intended to depict only typicalembodiments of the invention, and therefore should not be considered aslimiting the scope of the invention. In the drawings, like numberingrepresents like elements.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

For convenience purposes, the Detailed Description of the Invention hasthe following sections:

I. General Description; and

II. Computerized Implementation.

I. General Description

Referring now to FIG. 1, a method and process for tracking avataractivities within a virtual universe domain is provided. At 102 aproximity to or other engagement with a VU artifact of concern isdefined with respect to a supervised user avatar, in one aspect theproximity and artifact defined to enable tracking of the supervisedavatar's actions or activities within the VU with respect to theproximity to the artifact. At 104 activity of the supervised user avatarwithin the virtual universe domain is tracked. At 106 data is generatedrelative to the tracked activity or actions, and this data is analyzedat 108 to detect or determine data indicative of activities or actionsby the supervised avatar within the defined proximity to the associateartifact defined at 102. In an optional step at 110, some embodimentsfurther organize tracking data into one or more forms or formatsappropriate for review and understanding by the user or other party orentity, for example a supervisory entity. At 112 an appropriate party isnotified of the tracked data, for example by receiving a reportgenerated at 110, and in particular notice may include notice dataregarding specific activities within the defined proximity relative toan associated artifact as determined through analysis at 108. In someembodiments, notification at 112 may also comprise a VU provider,service provider or supervisory entity taking a direct action withrespect to the supervised avatar or an associated VU client application,wherein some examples include notifying a third party or modifying avirtual universe client of a user avatar to actively stop or restrictthe supervised user avatar from engaging in an activity within thedefined proximity.

Prior art networked computer resource monitoring techniques aregenerally domain specific; for example, a supervised user's computerapplication client may be configured with a prior art firewall toprevent inappropriate web site or domain navigation. However, the priorart firewall is only effective with respect to a specific web site or VUdomain, and generally based on the TCP ports involved. In contrast,methods and devices of the present invention (including as illustratedin FIG. 1 and described above) may be used by parents and othersupervisory entities for monitoring their children's or supervisedparty's activities within a given VU with respect to one or more definedVU artifacts of concern.

Proximities to an artifact of concern may be defined in a wide varietyof ways, as will be appreciated by those skilled in the respective arts.In one aspect, determining that a supervised avatar is engaging aforbidden or otherwise noteworthy artifact is a function of a proximitythreshold, wherein an engagement or encounter with the artifact moreproximate than a boundary value of the proximity threshold indicates anengagement event. For example, proximity may refer to a spatial orgeographic location of an avatar within a VU relative to an artifact ofconcern, and in one example a proximity threshold may be defined as adisplacement distance value, wherein a location of a supervised avatarproximate to an artifact of concern by less than the displacementdistance threshold indicates a forbidden engagement of the artifact bythe avatar. In another example, a parent may want to assure that asupervised child avatar does not enter a VU casino in order to preventgambling activities, and thus a proximity to the casino may be definedwith respect to an entry point such as a door, boundaries or outer wallof the casino as defined by geometric data Universally UniqueIdentifiers (UUID's) textual coordinates, wherein movement of thesupervised avatar is tracked to determine whether the avatar hastraversed the UUID's of the boundaries or doors.

Some VU regions considered otherwise generic or innocuous through VUratings or common or conventional norms may also be associated withbehaviors of concern: for example, a park area or general merchandisestore region may acquire a reputation among VU users as a hang-out ormeeting area for engaging other user avatars in order to purchase VU orreal-world contraband. An open or outdoor area, such as a park or plazabar, may also be frequented by avatars engaging in the public display ofcontraband or of adult-rated activities such as projecting adult orprofane comic entertainment material or pop music including stronglanguage or themes to the public of user avatars around them. Thus,according to the present invention, a proximity distance may be definedto keep a supervised avatar far enough away from such region artifactsthat objectionable material cannot be heard or seen by the avatar; forexample, a great enough sensory-limit proximity distance may be selectedthat a user's GUI cannot display an objectionable visual artifact withina proscribed region with a graphic resolution intelligible to the user.In some embodiments, the sensory-limit proximity distance may be definedas a function of the subject matter (with greater distances required toavoid exposure to signs and billboards), and distances may be definedwith respect to VU-specific geographic attributes, for example a“VU-kilometer” at a normal (non-magnified) avatar perspective. Proximitythresholds may also comprehend regions, particularly when no otherlegitimate or permitted artifact or activity is known within a region ora VU-kilometer range of the same.

The avatars of other users or entities may also be identified asartifacts for exclusion from engagement with a supervised avatar, forexample another user avatar known or predicted to exhibit inappropriatebehaviors or offensive speech and dress, or who has engaged in badfinancial dealings. In one aspect, a supervised avatar may be monitoredfor engagements with “griefer” avatar artifacts, users known or likelyto intentionally cause grief to other VU users or to the VU environment.Griefers may be differentiated from typical VU users by behaviors inconflict with generally accepted objectives or norms of a given VUenvironment such as completing a game quest or making positive socialcontacts, instead negatively impacting the experience of other VU userswithout a legitimate objective. Examples of griefer activities includeharassing or insulting other players and exploiting VU configurations toproduce pranks or malicious and undesired environmental changes notintended or acceptable by other users or a VU provider or developer.

Thus, according to the present invention, a proximity to an artifact maybe defined as a separation distance between avatars as well as adistance excluding a supervised avatar from engaging or partaking inactivities in a region of concern, and tracking may determine if asupervised avatar is or has been located more proximate to a badartifact than a specified engagement-prohibition threshold distance.

In another aspect of the present invention, a range-of-perceptionproximity may also be defined for application to an artifact. Forexample, to prevent exposure to projected or public utterances orgraphic displays of lewd behavior or mannerisms from a known bad-avataror VU region artifact, a proximity threshold may be specified, beyondwhich the supervised avatar is too far away to perceive the material ofconcern. This distance may be defined by a client computer displayscreen occupation; for example, a supervised avatar may not occupy thesame screen display area as a bad artifact or an associatedcommunication or media display within or by the bad artifact, in oneaspect preventing a co-location of both a supervised avatar and anartifact of concern within the same client computer display screen area.In another aspect, if the supervised avatar and the artifact do appearwithin a common screen display, a proximity threshold may space thesupervised avatar too far away to perceive an artifact; for example,images and text may be beyond a legible resolution range as defined byscreen pixel values. A range-of-perception proximity may also be definedwith respect to direct communications, for example receiving a chatmessage may violate a perception or communication proximity threshold.

VU personal items may also comprise artifacts of concern. Thus, an itemmay be defined with respect to an inventory proximity, with the natureof an item placed in an avatar's inventory or removed from an inventoryrelevant to proximity data tracking. The purchasing of items associatedwith a certain attribute may thus be tracked, including tracking itemidentity and dynamic attribute characteristics: for example, anotherwise benign image in an inventory may be altered or rendered intoan inappropriate form as provided to another user avatar and thusrelevant to an artifact proximity as altered. Items consideredcontraband or otherwise of concern may be identified and tracked throughanalyzing item descriptions, including dynamically tracking itemdescriptions that may change (for example from a time of purchase orother initial identification); item metadata; canonical names associatedwith the item; and social tags applied to items by other users.

Tracking information may be generated and sent to a supervisory party oreven to the user of the avatar, and used to identify and determinebenign as well as bad historical activity. In one aspect, tracking dataand reports may help a user remember where he has been or what he hasdone in the past, for example allowing a user to query the data todetermine if and/or when he has had a prior meeting with another useravatar, which may be useful in remembering an acquaintance and avoidingsocial embarrassment. Reporting or notifying may be performed via avariety of methods, including but not limited to e-mail, Really SimpleSyndication (RSS) feeds, short message service (SMS) and instantmessaging (IM) communication methods and applications, and may occurcontinually in real time or on periodic or event-responsive bases.

Reports may aggregate reporting activities in a reporting database, andmay also involve using a daemon or similar process. A daemon issometimes defined as a program or application that runs unobtrusively inthe background rather than under the direction, knowledge or control ofa user, and which awaits the occurrence of a specific event or conditionfor activation, for example a detection of a supervised avatar'sactivity exceeding a defined proximity threshold. Examples of actions orconditions that can trigger a supervisory daemon into activity alsoinclude passage of a specified time interval while the supervised avataris in a presence-proximity of an undesirable other avatar or in arestricted/adult-oriented VU region; observing a file artifactuploading, downloading or saving to an inventory or other monitored datastorage area; and receipt of an e-mail or a Web request made through aparticular communication line by an avatar or user/entity of concern.Some daemon embodiments use “Extract, Transform, Load” (ETL) functionsand metering paradigms, as will be apparent to one skilled in the art.

Implementation of tracking may be associated with a special user oraccount status. User-third party relationships may be determinativeduring VU account registrations, and thus tracking/monitoringconfigurations may be established responsive to identifying aparent-children relationship of two VU accounts with the parent's useraccount designated as the administrator of the child's VU account.User-third party relationships may also be designated and realized by areferential link in a database. More particularly, selection of areference or referential link enables access to other data associatedwith the link and located in another location, for example in anotherdatabase or another database location.

In one aspect, a parent or other responsible party may ensure that asupervised child user uses only an authorized avatar (one that has anauthoritative third party figure associated with it) within a given VUby controlling access to the VU, for example only allowing accessthrough a URL that acts as a proxy, and further requiring the user tolog into the VU through the URL using the authorized avatar ID. In someembodiments, a supervisory user may register computer Media AccessControl (MAC) addresses with the tracking service, wherein a MAC addressmay be defined as a quasi-unique identifier assigned to a networkadapter or network interface card (NIC) for identification as a nodewithin a network. Thus, a supervisor may monitor the behavior ofsupervised avatars that run an associated VU client application on theirworkstations. A MAC address-to-VU administrator link may also berealized by a referential link in a database. In one aspect, asupervisory entity tracking service may send tracking data tosupervisors or other third parties with regard to supervised-avatarvisits to MAC addresses for which tracking has been requested.

VU artifacts, including items, regions/locations and other avatars, maybe qualitatively evaluated to identify restricted activities andproximities with respect to the artifacts. For example, entertainmentmedia or passive environmental items viewed by the user avatar may bedetermined to be restricted or prohibited artifacts through analysis ofsocial tags applied by other VU users to the items or to places used forviewing/accessing the items, as well as through analysis ofcreator-applied ratings or tags assigned to a given item, region orstructure. Image recognition applications, such as for example Marvel™,may also be used (MARVEL is a trademark of IBM Corporation in the UnitedStates, other countries, or both). Tags may also be detected ordetermined through filtering of conversations or ambient media streams.Other avatar interactions may also be monitored and analyzed, forexample including parsing or filtering conversations between otheravatars relevant through regional co-location or other indicia withrespect to a monitored/supervised avatar.

More particularly, filtering may contemplate methods and systems thatdetect the presence of key terms or phrases within text communications,as well as tags and metatag data. Metadata may be defined as meaning“data about other data,” and search engines are known to use metatags tohelp determine the content and value of an artifact, for example withrespect to webpage content. Metatag data may comprise an optional lineof hyper-text markup language (HTML) code in a head section of a webdocument, the metatag's actual content providing descriptive informationabout the page, and further this descriptive information often notdisplayed by a search engine browser. Accordingly, according to thepresent invention metatag data associated with an artifact may beanalyzed to determine whether the artifact is of concern or otherwiserelevant to a specified proximity threshold.

It will also be appreciated that parsing may refer to analyzing input ina specific computer language against the formal grammar of the language,often to validate the input or create an internal representation for usein subsequent processing, as well as analyzing and describinggrammatical structures of a sentence in comprehending the meaning of asentence or term therein: thus parsing may be understood generally asanalyzing text items within text communications, as well as tags andmetatag data, in order to track activities according to the presentinvention. Other communications remote in time and place from themonitored/supervised avatar may also be tracked and analyzed, includingchat and other communication transcripts determined as relevant to themonitored/supervised avatar or a location visited thereby.

FIG. 2 provides an illustration of an avatar/artifact engagement trackedaccording to the present invention within a virtual universe domain 118,for example pursuant to a method of process of FIG. 1 as describedabove. A supervised avatar 120 is illustrated in proximity to a secondavatar 130, and more particularly the second avatar 130 is proximate tothe supervised avatar 120 within a proximity threshold 122 defined aboutthe supervised avatar 120. Thus, if the second avatar 130 is identifiedas an artifact or concern, for example as a griefer 130, then thepresent illustrated engagement would be determined and reported as aproximate artifact engagement as described above.

In another aspect, a chat, text or other communication 132 from thesecond avatar 130 illustrated in FIG. 2 may be analyzed for artifactterms. In the present example, the term “green widget” 134 may refer toa subject matter of concern, and thus a process or system according tothe present invention, for example as described above, may parse thecommunication 132 and determine the occurrence of the artifact term 134,resulting in a proximate artifact engagement determined and reported asdescribed above.

Avatar tracking may be invoked (e.g. turned on) manually, for example bya selection means provided by a graphical user interface; or it may beautomatically invoked, for example whenever a monitored/supervisedavatar or user logs on or leaves a specified VU home or company locationor when an avatar enters a certain designated/prohibited VU building orregion.

Engagement of restricted artifacts in violation of a proximity thresholdmay result in a variety of actions. A supervisory entity may be notifiedvia a graphical user interface (GUI) prompt, a page or a telephone call,and other appropriate notifications will be apparent to one skilled inthe art. The supervised avatar may also be directly notified, forexample by a GUI prompt stating “You are a entering a restricted area.”The VU client of a monitored/supervised avatar may also directlyrestrict the avatar from entering a restricted area rather than simplywarning the avatar from doing so; for example, the monitored-avatar maybe automatically teleported or transported to another region.

It will also be appreciated that distinguishing bad behavior (forexample, griefer behavior) from more benign behavior may be subtle andVU-dependent. Behaviors displayed or otherwise engaged in publicly maybe acceptable in one VU environment but clearly unacceptable in another,or they may become unacceptable as a given VU environment matures orevolves. Thus, in one aspect, bad avatar behavior definitions, as wellas other artifact-of-concern definitions, may be dynamic and updateable,and other negative artifacts and attributes suitable for use with thepresent invention will also be apparent to one skilled in the art.Artifacts relevant to activity tracking and associated activityproximities may also be user defined, or they may be defined andprovided by others. Thus, a group of parents may together associate aregion of a VU with a behavioral attribute of concern; in one example,votes by parents or other users with supervisory status may associate aVU park area as a “known contraband provider hangout,” and thus thepresence of a child's avatar may be specifically tracked with respect tothe area.

Dynamically updating bad artifact and proximity data may also compriserequesting or receiving data and updates from other supervisory entitiesand third parties and using the updated data in the processes describedabove. Thus, a supervisory entity may specify other VU administrators,groups or supervisory entities for sharing data, in one aspectdesignating third parties that they would like to receive or inheritregion information from in order to use the data in identifyingartifacts and associated activity proximities for tracking. In someembodiments a client may be offered a choice of a plurality of updatingentities for updating artifact data or proximity threshold data, whereinin response to choosing a proffered updating entity artifact data orproximity threshold data is dynamically updated with update datareceived from the chosen updating entity.

Avatar tracking data may be monitored at different levels ofgranularity. For example, positional information may be generated everyminute or every time a user teleports, flies, or moves a specifiedthreshold distance value. Information may also be generated every timean item is added to or removed/displayed/used from an avatar'sinventory. In one implementation, a daemon process may regularly poll asupervised avatar for current location information and store thisinformation for subsequent data transmittals or report generation.Compiling and analyzing tracking data may comprise a variety ofaggregating and packaging methodology. For example, tracking informationmay be presented as a list of VU region names, a list of names ofavatars that came within a defined proximity radius of a supervisedavatar, or as a map showing the supervised avatar's traversals in avirtual universe domain.

According to the present invention, organizations, parents and otherauthorized third parties may also register with a service provider whoprovides supervisory entity services, for example tracking an avatar andproviding tracking data reporting in exchange for fees paid to theservice provider. In some examples, third parties may get periodicreports as to what form of content is being accessed by supervisedavatars. In another aspect, supervisory entities may also monitorinappropriate use or download of content within a VU or from a VU to adomain outside the VU, and to facilitate such monitoring somesupervisory entities may make use of metadata tags on VU items. Metadatatags may indicate the nature of items (tag examples include adultmaterial, contains explicit lyrics, contains confidential data, etc.),and thus in one example if an item is tagged “adult” an alert may betriggered to supervisory entities and third parties and/or a downloadprevented.

Not all item makers may put appropriate tags on their items, nor maysocial tags applied by other users be accurate. To overcome tagdeficiencies, supervisory entities may also use a variety of methodologyto review and analyze VU item content and make qualitative restrictedcontent determinations with respect to VU artifacts, including directlyassessing VU content by human or automated image analysis methodology.Some embodiments may incorporate other services and service providersinto restricted content determinations.

An “artificial-artificial-intelligence” application or service may alsobe used in which an automated or GUI interface application uses actualhumans to examine an item and make a decision as to appropriateness.Although live human analysis may be labor-intensive and more expensivethan automated processes, parents and other third parties may find thevalue-added by using human analyzers worth the extra time and expense,and in particular for monitored/supervised avatar which may require ahigher standard of care such as minor children who have evidenced priorimproper use of VU resources. Thus, in oneartificial-artificial-intelligence embodiment, a monitored/supervisedchild avatar attempting to download an item within a VU domain triggersscanning and analysis of the item by a Mechanical Turk® application(MECHANICAL TURK is a trademark of Amazon.com, Inc. in the United Statesand/or other countries) in response to a remote procedure providedbelow:

 read (item); itemContainsAdultmaterial = callMechanicalTurk(item);  if(itemContainsAdultmaterial == FALSE) {  acceptItem;  }  else { rejectItem;  }

Other analysis components may also be utilized, as will be appreciatedby one skilled in the art. FIG. 3 illustrates a logic machine 200configured to monitor avatar activities within a virtual universe domainfor use with a virtual universe client or provider application accordingto the present invention. The logic machine 200 comprises a proximitydefinition component 202 configured to define proximity values relevantto VU artifacts of concern with respect to actions and activities of amonitored user avatar and an avatar tracker component 204 configured tomonitor avatar activity data within the virtual universe domain as afunction of the defined artifacts and proximities. A data analyzercomponent 206 is configured to analyze the tracking data, and inparticular with respect to activity exceeding proximity limits orthresholds or other data observations relevant to defined artifacts andproximities. A report generator component 208 is configured to generatereports with regard to supervised user avatar actions and activity, andin particular to provide notification of activity relevant to thedefined artifacts and proximities. An action component 210 mayoptionally be provided, configured to take an appropriate action as afunction of determining occurrences within tracking data of activityexceeding proximity thresholds, for example by notifying a third partyor modifying a virtual universe client of the user avatar to stop orrestrict an associated activity.

II. Computerized Implementation

The present invention may be implemented using conventional softwaretools and methods applicable to virtual universes, for example within astand-alone VU application, or as a plug-in to an existing VUapplication. The system and mechanisms described could be implemented ina hosting system or grid for a virtual universe or in client softwarefor the virtual universe installed on a user's personal computer orother programmable device. Referring now to FIG. 4, an exemplarycomputerized implementation includes a computer system 304 deployedwithin a computer infrastructure 308 such as a computer or aprogrammable device such as a personal digital assistant (PDA) orcellular phone. This is intended to demonstrate, among other things,that the present invention could be implemented within a networkenvironment 340 (e.g., the Internet, a wide area network (WAN), a localarea network (LAN), a virtual private network (VPN), etc.) incommunication with one or more additional computers 336, or on astand-alone computer infrastructure 308. In the case of the former,communication throughout the network 340 can occur via any combinationof various types of communication links. For example, the communicationlinks can comprise addressable connections that may utilize anycombination of wired and/or wireless transmission methods. Wherecommunications occur via the Internet, connectivity could be provided byconventional TCP/IP sockets-based protocol, and an Internet serviceprovider could be used to establish connectivity to the Internet.

As shown, the computer system 304 includes a central processing unit(CPU) 312, a memory 316, a bus 320, and input/output (I/O) interfaces324. Further, the computer system 304 is shown in communication withexternal I/O devices/resources 328 and storage system 332. In general,the processing unit 312 executes computer program code, such as the codeto implement various components of the present invention, including themethods, processes and devices/systems illustrated in the FIGS. 1-3 anddescribed herein, including the proximity definition component 202, theavatar tracker component 204, the data analyzer component 206, thereport generator component 208 and the action component 210, which arestored in memory 316 and/or storage system 332. It is to be appreciatedthat two or more, including all, of the components may be implemented asa single component.

While executing computer program code, the processing unit 312 can readand/or write data to/from the memory 316, the storage system 332, and/orthe I/O interfaces 324. The bus 320 provides a communication linkbetween each of the components in computer system 304. The externaldevices 328 can comprise any devices (e.g., keyboard, pointing device,display, etc.) that enable a user to interact with computer system 304and/or any devices (e.g., network card, modem, etc.) that enablecomputer system 304 to communicate with one or more other computingdevices.

The computer infrastructure 308 is only illustrative of various types ofcomputer infrastructures for implementing the invention. For example, inone embodiment, computer infrastructure 308 comprises two or morecomputing devices (e.g., a server cluster) that communicate over anetwork to perform the various process steps of the invention. Moreover,computer system 304 is only representative of various possible computersystems that can include numerous combinations of hardware. To thisextent, in other embodiments, the computer system 304 can comprise anyspecific purpose-computing article of manufacture comprising hardwareand/or computer program code for performing specific functions, anycomputing article of manufacture that comprises a combination ofspecific purpose and general-purpose hardware/software, or the like. Ineach case, the program code and hardware can be created using standardprogramming and engineering techniques, respectively. Moreover, theprocessing unit 312 may comprise a single processing unit, or bedistributed across one or more processing units in one or morelocations, e.g., on a client and server. Similarly, the memory 316and/or the storage system 332 can comprise any combination of varioustypes of data storage and/or transmission media that reside at one ormore physical locations.

Further, I/O interfaces 324 can comprise any system for exchanginginformation with one or more of the external device 328. Still further,it is understood that one or more additional components (e.g., systemsoftware, math co-processing unit, etc.) not shown in FIG. 4 can beincluded in computer system 304. Moreover, if computer system 304comprises a handheld device or the like, it is understood that one ormore of the external devices 328 (e.g., a display) and/or the storagesystem 332 could be contained within computer system 304, not externallyas shown.

The storage system 332 can be any type of system (e.g., a database)capable of providing storage for information under the presentinvention. To this extent, the storage system 332 could include one ormore storage devices, such as a magnetic disk drive or an optical diskdrive. In another embodiment, the storage system 332 includes datadistributed across, for example, a local area network (LAN), wide areanetwork (WAN) or a storage area network (SAN) (not shown). In addition,although not shown, additional components, such as cache memory,communication systems, system software, etc., may be incorporated intocomputer system 304.

While shown and described herein as a method and a system, it isunderstood that the invention further provides various alternativeembodiments. For example, in one embodiment, the invention provides acomputer-readable/useable medium that includes computer program code toenable a computer infrastructure to practice an embodiment according tothe present invention, including the methods, processes anddevices/systems illustrated in the Figures and described herein. To thisextent, the computer-readable/useable medium includes program code thatimplements each of the various process steps of the invention.

It is understood that the terms “computer-readable medium” or “computeruseable medium” comprise one or more of any type of physical embodimentof the program code. In particular, the computer-readable/useable mediumcan comprise program code embodied on one or more portable storagearticles of manufacture (e.g., a compact disc, a magnetic disk, a tape,etc.), on one or more data storage portions of a computing device, suchas the memory 316 and/or the storage system 332 (e.g., a fixed disk, aread-only memory, a random access memory, a cache memory, etc.).

Still yet, computer infrastructure 308 is intended to demonstrate thatsome or all of the components of implementation could be deployed,managed, serviced, etc. by a service provider who offers to implement,deploy, and/or perform the functions of the present invention, includingmethods, processes and devices/systems according to the presentinvention as illustrated in the Figures and described herein, forexample by licensing methods and browser or application servertechnology according to the present invention to an internet serviceproviders (ISP) or cellular telephone provider. In one embodiment, theinvention may comprise a business method that performs the process stepsof the invention on a subscription, advertising, and/or fee basis. Thus,a service provider can create, maintain, support, etc., a computerinfrastructure, such as the computer infrastructure 308 that performsthe process steps of the invention, and in return the service providercan receive payment from the customer(s) under a subscription and/or feeagreement and/or the service provider can receive payment from the saleof advertising content to one or more third parties.

As used herein, it is understood that the terms “program code” and“computer program code” are synonymous and mean any expression, in anylanguage, code or notation, of a set of instructions intended to cause acomputing device having an information processing capability to performa particular function either directly or after either or both of thefollowing: (a) conversion to another language, code or notation; and/or(b) reproduction in a different material form. To this extent, programcode can be embodied as one or more of: an application/software program,component software/a library of functions, an operating system, a basicI/O system/driver for a particular computing and/or I/O device, and thelike.

The foregoing description of various aspects of the invention has beenpresented for purposes of illustration and description. It is notintended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise formdisclosed, and obviously, many modifications and variations arepossible. Such modifications and variations that may be apparent to aperson skilled in the art are intended to be included within the scopeof the invention as defined by the accompanying claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for tracking avatar activities within avirtual universe domain, comprising: defining a permissible proximitythreshold of an avatar which symbolizes a user who is accessing thevirtual universe domain with respect to a proximity of the avatar to aplurality of specified artifacts of concern comprising a secondspecified item within a virtual universe domain screen display of acomputer virtual universe client application of the user; defining theproximity threshold to comprise a location of the second item within aninventory of the avatar; tracking geographic positioning activity by theavatar within the virtual universe domain screen display; generatingactivity data from the geographic positioning tracking; analyzing theactivity data to determine an engagement event whenever an engagement ofthe avatar with the specified artifacts is more proximate than thepermissible proximity threshold, comprising determining the engagementevent in response to an adding of the second item to the avatar'sinventory; generating a report from the analyzing, the report notingeach occurrence of the engagement event; and notifying a supervisoryentity in response to the generated report noting an occurrence of theengagement event; wherein generating the report comprises aggregating alist of at least one of a name of a region visited by the avatar withinthe virtual universe domain during the engagement event and a name ofanother avatar determined spatially proximate to the avatar within theproximity threshold during the engagement event, and noting anassociation of the specified artifacts with each of the at least onelisted region name and the listed another avatar name.
 2. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the reporting comprises generating a map showingtraversals of the avatar associated with the engagement event.
 3. Themethod of claim 1, further comprising identifying the item as theartifact by analyzing at least one of metatag data associated with theitem, an item description, a canonical name associated with the item,and a social tag applied to the item by another user.
 4. The method ofclaim 1, further comprising registering a media access control address;and wherein the generating the report further comprises noting if theengagement event occurred during a visit by the user to the registeredmedia access control address.
 5. The method of claim 4, whereinregistering the media access control address comprises providing areferential link in a database.
 6. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising at least one of a virtual universe domain provider and thesupervisory entity modifying a virtual universe client of the avatar torestrict the avatar from engaging in an activity associated with thedetermined proximity of the avatar to the artifacts within the proximitythreshold.
 7. The method of claim 6, wherein modifying the virtualuniverse client of the avatar comprises further preventing a co-locationof the avatar with the specified artifacts within the common screendisplay area.
 8. The method of claim 6, the plurality of specifiedartifacts comprising a specified region defined within the virtualuniverse, wherein avatars located within the specified region engage inactivities forbidden to the avatar, and wherein the specified region hasan entry point comprising a door, a boundary or an outer wall of theregion defined by geometric data universally unique identifier textualcoordinates; wherein the defined permissible proximity threshold furthercomprises the entry point; wherein the determining the engagement eventcomprises determining the engagement event in response to the analyzingthe activity data determining a movement of the avatar traversing theentry point to visit the specified region.
 9. The method of claim 1,wherein the specified artifacts visually conveys objectionable image ortext material to a viewer; wherein the defined permissible proximitythreshold is a virtual universe spatial perception threshold distance tothe specified artifacts beyond which the objectionable image or textmaterial is unintelligible within a legible resolution range defined byscreen pixel values of a graphic resolution of a virtual universe clientapplication screen display of a user of the avatar; and wherein theanalyzing the activity data comprises determining a proximity of theavatar to the specified artifacts within a common screen display anddetermining the engagement event in response to determining that thespecified artifacts are more proximate to the visual artifact than thespatial perception threshold distance within the screen display.
 10. Themethod of claim 9, further comprising: specifying a text item andanother avatar within the plurality of specified artifacts; the definedpermissible proximity threshold further prohibiting a directcommunication of the specified text item between the avatar and thespecified another avatar; the analyzing the activity data furthercomprising at least one of parsing and filtering text communicationsengaged in by the avatar; and the determining the engagement eventfurther comprising determining the engagement event in response to theanalyzing the activity data noting an occurrence of the specified textitem in a direct communication between the avatar and the specifiedanother avatar by the at least one of the parsing and the filtering ofthe text communications.
 11. A method for providing a service fortracking of avatar activities within a virtual universe domain,comprising: providing a computer infrastructure comprising a processingunit, a memory, a computer readable storage device and a networkinterface in communication with a virtual universe domain, wherein thecomputer infrastructure processing unit executes program instructions onthe memory that are stored on the computer readable storage device andis configured to: define a permissible proximity threshold of an avatarwhich symbolizes a user who is accessing the virtual universe domainwith respect to a proximity of the avatar to a plurality of specifiedartifacts of concern comprising a second specified item within a virtualuniverse domain screen display of a virtual universe computer clientapplication of the user; define the proximity threshold as a location ofthe second item within an inventory of the avatar; track geographicpositioning activity by the avatar within the virtual universe domainscreen display; generate activity data from the geographic positioningtracking; analyze the activity data to determine an engagement eventwhenever an engagement of the avatar with the specified artifacts ismore proximate than the permissible proximity threshold; analyze theactivity data to determine the proximity of the avatar to the seconditem within the proximity threshold in response to adding the seconditem to the avatar's inventory; generate a report from the analyzing,the report noting each occurrence of the engagement event; and notify aclient of activity tracking services in response to determining that thegenerated report notes an occurrence of the engagement event; whereinthe computer infrastructure processing unit generates the report byaggregating a list of at least one of a name of a region visited by theavatar within the virtual universe domain during the engagement eventand a name of another avatar determined spatially proximate to theavatar within the proximity threshold during the engagement event, andwherein the report notes an association of the specified artifacts witheach of the at least one listed region name and the listed anotheravatar name.
 12. The method for providing tracking of claim 11, thespecified artifacts comprising a second specified item, and wherein thecomputer infrastructure processing unit is further configured, byexecuting the program instructions on the memory that are stored on thecomputer readable storage device, to: identify the second item as thespecified artifact by analyzing at least one of metatag data associatedwith the second item, an item description, a canonical name associatedwith the second item, and a social tag applied to the second item byanother user.
 13. The method of claim 11, wherein the computerinfrastructure processing unit is further configured, by executing theprogram instructions on the memory that are stored on the computerreadable storage device, to modify a virtual universe client of a userof the avatar to prevent a co-location of the avatar with the specifiedartifacts within the common screen display area.
 14. The method of claim12, wherein the processing unit is further configured, by executing theprogram instructions on the memory that are stored on the computerreadable storage device, to: offer the user by client a choice of aplurality of updating entities for updating at least one of data of thespecified artifacts and data of the proximity threshold; and in responseto the user choosing at least one of the plurality of updating entities,dynamically update the at least one of the specified artifact data andthe proximity threshold data with update data received from the chosenat least one updating entity.
 15. A computer program product fortracking avatar activities within a virtual universe domain, thecomputer program product comprising: a computer readable storage device;first program instructions to define a permissible proximity thresholdof an avatar who is accessing the virtual universe domain with respectto a proximity of the avatar to a plurality of specified artifacts ofconcern comprising a second specified item within a virtual universedomain screen display of a computer virtual universe client applicationof the user to comprise a location of the second item within aninventory of the avatar; second program instructions to track geographicpositioning activity by the avatar within the virtual universe domainand generate activity data from the geographic positioning tracking;third program instructions to analyze the activity data to determine anengagement event whenever an engagement of the avatar with the specifiedartifacts is more proximate than the permissible proximity threshold,define the proximity threshold as a location of the second item withinan inventory of the avatar, analyze the activity data to determine theproximity of the avatar to the second item within the proximitythreshold in response to adding the second item to the avatar'sinventory, and generate a report from the analyzing, the report notingeach occurrence of the engagement event, and notify a supervisory entityin response to the generated report noting an occurrence of theengagement event; wherein generating the report comprises aggregating alist of at least one of a name of a region visited by the avatar withinthe virtual universe domain during the engagement event and a name ofanother avatar determined spatially proximate to the avatar within theproximity threshold during the engagement event, and noting anassociation of the specified artifacts with each of the at least onelisted region name and the listed another avatar name; and wherein thefirst, second and third program instructions are stored on the computerreadable storage device.
 16. The computer program product of claim 15,wherein the third program instructions are further to: identify thesecond item as the specified artifact by analyzing at least one ofmetatag data associated with the second item, an item description, acanonical name associated with the second item, and a social tag appliedto the second item by another user.
 17. The computer program product ofclaim 16, wherein the second program instructions are further to analyzethe activity data by at least one of parsing and filtering textcommunications engaged in by the avatar with another specified avatarfor a specified text item; and wherein the third program instructionsare further to define the permissible proximity threshold by furtherprohibiting a direct communication of the specified text item betweenthe avatar and the specified another avatar; parse or filtering textcommunications engaged in by the avatar; and determine the engagementevent in response to the parsing or the filtering of the textcommunications indicating an occurrence of the specified text item in adirect communication between the another specified avatar and theavatar.
 18. A programmable device comprising: a processing unit; amemory in communication with the processing unit; a computer readablestorage device comprising program instructions stored therein; and anetwork interface in communication with the processing unit and avirtual universe domain; wherein the processing unit executes theprogram instructions stored on the computer readable storage device,which causes the programmable device to: define a permissible proximitythreshold of an avatar who is accessing the virtual universe domain withrespect to a proximity of the avatar to a plurality of specifiedartifacts of concern comprising a second specified item within a virtualuniverse domain screen display of a computer virtual universe clientapplication of a user; define the proximity threshold as a location ofthe second item within an inventory of the avatar; track geographicpositioning activity by the avatar within the virtual universe domainscreen display; generate activity data from the geographic positioningtracking; analyze the activity data to determine an engagement eventwhenever an engagement of the avatar with the specified artifacts withinthe screen display is more proximate than the permissible proximitythreshold, and to determine the proximity of the avatar to the seconditem as within the proximity threshold in response to adding the seconditem to the avatar's inventory; generate a report from the analyzing,the report noting each occurrence of the engagement event; and notify asupervisory entity in response to determining that the generated reportnotes an occurrence of the engagement event; wherein generating thereport comprises aggregating a list of at least one of a name of aregion visited by the avatar within the virtual universe domain duringthe engagement event and a name of another avatar determined spatiallyproximate to the avatar within the proximity threshold during theengagement event, and the generated report notes an association of thespecified artifacts with each of the at least one listed region name andthe listed another avatar name.
 19. The programmable device of claim 18,wherein the processing unit is further configured, by executing theprogram instructions on the memory that are stored on the computerreadable storage device, to: identify the second item as the specifiedartifact by analyzing at least one of metatag data associated with thesecond item, an item description, a canonical name associated with thesecond item, and a social tag applied to the second item by anotheruser.
 20. The programmable device of claim 18, wherein the processingunit is further configured, by executing the program instructions on thememory that are stored on the computer readable storage device, to:analyze the activity data by at least one of parsing and filtering textcommunications engaged in by the avatar with another specified avatarfor a specified text item; define the permissible proximity threshold byfurther prohibiting a direct communication of the specified text itembetween the avatar and the specified another avatar; and determine theengagement event in response to a parsing or the filtering of the textcommunications of the avatar indicating an occurrence of the specifiedtext item in a direct communication between the another specified avatarand the avatar.